The conference, which is held annually by the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, focuses on Israel’s long-term future and related strategy and issues, including policymaking.
During the interview, Djerejian was asked about Israel’s prospects for peace with Palestinians.
“Israel should do everything possible to get to the table with the Palestinians. As frustrating as it is, this is the key if Israel wants to do anything to influence the so-called Arab Spring,” he said. “The one thing it can do is move forward on peace with the Palestinians. That would have such a positive impact in avoiding worst-case scenarios with the Palestinian street.”
Noting that “it takes two to negotiate,” Djerejian said he had just met with
Palestinian Authority leaders whom he believes are sincere in their quest for peace, though he noted that pressure from Hamas is taking a toll. That said, he
believes there is a way forward, citing recent efforts in Jordan to get Israelis and Palestinians to talk.
“There’s no question in my mind that I hope these exploratory talks that took place in Aman will move forward in a more serious manner frankly so that the parties can start negotiating,” he said.
For links to interviews and news stories about U.S. policy in the Middle East that feature Ambassador Djerejian and Baker Institute fellows and scholars, please click here.
Over the past two years, scientists working on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have been waiting for a court decision that would decide the fate of their research. In the case Sherley v. Sebelius, two stem cell researchers filed a case against the U.S. government and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reviewed whether federal law prohibits the funding of hESC research or just funding the creation of the cells.
In a recent Baker Institute policy report, science and technology fellow Kirstin Matthews, postdoctoral research associate Maude Rowland, and interns Jingyuan Luo and Monica Matsumoto examine the progression of Sherley vs. Sebelius and the implications the case might have on the United States’ “ability to collaborate — as well as compete — with international hESC research efforts.”
Additionally, the authors recommend that Congress construct a comprehensive and unambiguous policy for U.S. hESC research and funding so that vital studies will not be punctuated by disruptive changes in the legality of their work.
Russell A. Green, Ph.D., an international economist who most recently served as the U.S. Treasury Department's financial attaché to India, is the Baker Institute's new Will Clayton Fellow.
"Russell Green's academic credentials, expertise in international economic affairs and hands-on financial experience in various positions he has held epitomize the Baker Institute's bringing together individuals from the worlds of ideas and action," said founding director Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian. "We are delighted to have him at the institute."
In the fall, Green will also teach international macroeconomics at Rice University, engaging students as part of the Baker Institute's outreach on campus. Green plans to focus on the response of emerging markets to major variations in capital flows, examining how surges or declines in cross-border investments affect, for instance, exchange rates or inflation in recipient countries.
"After eight years of experience in international affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department, I felt there were a lot of interesting policy questions that I wanted to pursue from a more academic perspective," Green said. "The experience I have provides a good base of understanding of the way markets work and the way policymakers think. I look forward to applying this experience in my work at the Baker Institute."
Prior to his post in India, where he was the top U.S. financial diplomat, Green served as the deputy director of the Treasury Department's Office of International Monetary Policy and an international economist at its Office of Quantitative Policy Analysis.
In addition, he was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Japan/University of Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan, and at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. A native Houstonian, Green received his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, and his bachelor's degree at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.
Now that Texas Gov. Rick has Perry dropped out of the Republican presidential primary, there are questions about his political future in Texas.
In this Baker Institute Blog post, Baker Institute political science fellow Mark P. Jones discusses how the governor’s image and influence might change because of his presidential run. Jones notes that Perry’s political reputation has undoubtedly been tarnished by his turn on the national political stage. However, his political savvy at the state level will allow him to remain an influential player throughout the last three years of his gubernatorial term. The long-term ramifications, Jones says, are not as promising:
“Support by Republican political insiders and major Republican donors for a Perry 2014 gubernatorial candidacy is without a doubt much more tepid today then this time last year. Expect an enhanced preference by these elites for another Republican to take the reins in 2015.”
Read Jones’ Jan. 17, 2012, Baker Institute Blog post “As Governor Perry comes back to Texas” on the Baker Institute Blog. Please note that the blog was written two days before Perry dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination on Jan. 19, 2012.
In a recent Baker Institute Blog post, Rice University junior and Baker Institute editorial intern Anna Schroeder writes about Paula Deen’s recent announcement that she has Type 2 diabetes diagnosis and her pursuant pharmaceutical endorsement. Schroeder asserts that Deen’s greatest fumble in handling the situation was simply touting the effectiveness of a pill instead of acknowledging the role that lifestyle choices play in Type 2 diabetes.
“Paula Deen had the perfect platform to address the American public, a population with a clear obesity epidemic and related diabetes outbreak, and comment on the importance of lifestyle choices. Instead, she … shifted the discussion to the diabetes drug website she is promoting as a paid spokesperson.”
The James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy is ranked 24th among U.S. think tanks and 17th among university-affiliated think tanks worldwide, according to the annual Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program survey at the University of Pennsylvania.
"As in recent years, the Baker Institute's ranking in 2011 is a reflection of the relevance and timeliness of the public policy studies and recommendations produced by the institute's fellows and scholars," said founding director Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian. "It also reflects, as well, the quality of the programs and events that the institute's staff organize to extend our outreach to Rice students and faculty, to the Houston community and to national and international audiences."
The 2011 Global Go To Think Tank Rankings, released in January 2012, were produced with the help of more than 1,500 peer institutions and experts from the print and electronic media, academia, public and private donor institutions and policymakers. Rankings criteria included an institute's ability to retain top scholars, the quality of research, access to policymakers and ability to influence policy decisions. A total of 6,545 think tanks in 182 countries were invited to participate in the survey; 5,329 think tanks were nominated.
The Greater Houston Area is home to world-class medical facilities, but many of its residents do not have access to basic health care. In a recent op-ed for the Houston Chronicle, Elena Marks, Baker Institute scholar in health policy, explains how a new initiative, the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP), could improve the Texas' and Harris County's current health care services:
“[DSRIP] pays health care providers, particularly hospitals, to change the way health care is delivered to achieve three goals: better care for individuals, better health for the population as a whole and lower costs. The focus areas that Texas will address, by its own choice, include infrastructure development (expanding outpatient facilities, increasing the primary care work force and investing in technology) and program innovation and redesign (developing new ways to deliver care).”
To learn more about how the DSRIP program might affect Texas health care delivery, read the Dec. 25, 2011, Houston Chronicle op-ed “Houston, we have a solution.”
In the past 30 years, the average age of biomedical researchers has steadily increased. To determine if this might impact innovative ideas and research, Baker Institute fellow Kirstin Matthews and Vivian Ho, along with interns Kara Calhoun and Nathan Lo, analyzed the work of Nobel Prize winners from 1980 to 2010 to assess the age at which their pioneering research occurred.
Their study, published in the online journal PLoS ONE, establishes that among scientists who were awarded Nobel Prizes in medicine or chemistry for work related to biomedicine, their groundbreaking research was conducted at an average age of 41 — one year younger than the average age of a new investigator at the National Institutes of Health. This delayed access to NIH, the article concludes, might inhibit research potential and novel projects, and could impact biomedicine and the next generation scientists in the United States.
“Although the U.S. presence in the region is weak, there are a number of oil interests in Chad and Cameroon, in addition to the obvious oil interests in southern Nigeria and the uranium interests in northern Niger, that should be of concern. Therefore, it is clear that the United States should lend all possible aid, military and intelligence to the defeat of Boko Haram.”
The Honorable James A. Baker, III, recalled former President
Gerald Ford's leadership traits and actions during a recent event celebrating
the 30th anniversary of the Gerald R. Ford Museum.
Baker's record of public service began in 1975 as undersecretary of commerce to President Ford.
President Ford was “a man with a true moral compass,” Baker
told the audience at the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich. He added that the Ford was a model for leadership
qualities:
“At his very core, Gerald Ford was a leader, one who was
guided by a clear conscience and a dogged determination to see his country at
its very best.”
View video of Baker's Oct. 31, 2011, remarks below:
Recent attacks on drug cartel communications infrastructure by the Mexican government might represent a turning point in the balance of power between drug traffickers and the federal government in northeastern Mexico, according to nonresident drug policy fellow Gary J. Hale.
"Our global society has developed a deep reliance on communications
devices of every kind, and that need to communicate translates into a
critical dependency for the drug cartels trying to move drugs into the
United States from Mexico," says Hale in a recent blog post. To remove communications is to deny any enterprise the
ability to coordinate and succeed in completing the critical aspects of
their business cycle, he explains.
The jobs crisis is one of the most pressing
challenges facing policymakers today, with one in six Americans out of work, underemployed or no longer
searching for work.
To better understand this
issue, the Baker Institute Student Forum hosted a debate on
student-developed plans to foster job creation.
Four students from the Rice University Young Democrats and four
students from the Rice Conservative Forum argued their respective
plans for job growth. The audience participated in
the conversation through a question-and-answer session with the
panelists.
Chris Bronk, fellow in information technology policy, shares his
thoughts on the two bills currently in Congress aimed at protecting U.S. cyber
infrastructure: the Preventing Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft
of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act
(SOPA). Both would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to block
certain foreign web sites used to violate U.S. intellectual property law.
Bronk speaks out against these bills, contending that:
“They represent yet another attempt to
legislate away the problem of digital theft with little knowledge of how the
Internet, computing or even innovation works … provisions in the bills would
actually serve to derail nearly a decade's worth of security research and
engineering undertaken in partnership between the U.S. government and private
companies.”
As an alternative, Bronk suggests the
U.S. should, “locate the funds to hire 50 additional FBI cyber agents able to
serve as legal attachés in foreign countries, prosecuting the most egregious IP
violators under current law.”
The Rise of China and Its Energy Implications is a major research initiative to investigate the implications of China’s oil and natural gas policies and domestic energy market development on global energy markets. This study focuses on the influence of China’s energy development on U.S. energy security and global geopolitics. Utilizing geopolitical and economic modeling and scenario analysis, the study analyzes various possible outcomes for China’s domestic energy production and its future import levels. The study considers how trends in China’s energy use will influence U.S.-China relations and the level of involvement of the U.S. oil industry in China’s domestic energy sector.
Marc Sabbagh, a Rice University senior majoring in political science
and history, blogs about his summer study program at the American University of
Beirut in Lebanon. Expanding on his experiences as a member of the Baker Institute Public
Policy and Global Diplomacy Program, which sent him to Cairo
during the summer of 2010, Sabbagh was able to again engage and learn from a new
culture:
“What I realized was that cultural diplomacy
was a two-way street. I had a foot in two worlds, places I perceived to be on
opposite sides of the spectrum, and I was able through my experience to teach
people on both sides," he said. "I had the understanding of two cultures, both of which had
differences, similarities and their own individual flaws.”
Read Sabbagh’s Nov. 16, 2011, Baker Institute Blog post, “Lessons
from Lebanon.”
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a new poverty measure to
replace the much-maligned official poverty measure that has not changed
since 1963.
Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, Ph.D., a Rice University sociologist and Baker Institute Rice scholar, examines the new criteria, blogging that:
" ... the new measure shows a shift in who is poor — from families
with children to the elderly. Even with Social Security and Medicare,
many elderly are burdened with high medical expenses, which the new
measure takes into account. In contrast, poor families with children,
who may be eligible for a variety of programs like SNAP, Temporary Aid
to Needy Families and the EITC, look better under the new measure once
those government transfers are taken into account."
Participants considered the implications of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for the U.S. health care system and the well-being of the population. Five of the nation’s foremost health economists discussed issues including the economic underpinnings of the health care reform legislation, the current status and future for the prescription drug industry, and the long-term care sector.
Those economists were: Amitabh Chandra, Ph.D., of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Mark Duggan, Ph.D., of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Martin Gaynor, Ph.D., Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University; David C. Grabowski, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School; and Kosali Simon, Ph.D., School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University.
Video of Amitabh Chandra's presentation on "Technology and Cost Growth in Health Care," followed by Kosali Simon's presentation on "Panacea or Bitter Pill: Prescription Drugs Under Health Care Reform," can be viewed directly below. To watch the rest of the conferences videos and to download the presentation slides, please visit the event page.
“He was the right guy at the right time in so many
circumstances and he has served our country in so many ways,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey
Graham, R-S.C., said of Baker in presenting the award. “When it comes to
spreading freedom, you have done more than your fair share and when it comes to
setting a standard, you are a role model.”
Baker Institute fellow Kenneth B. Medlock III, Ph.D., went
to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Nov. 8, to help lawmakers understand the outlook for natural gas.
The committee hearing sought to consider market developments for U.S. natural gas, including the approval process and potential for liquefied natural gas exports.
Medlock fielded various questions from committee members including U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
The conference began with opening remarks from Baker Institute
founding director Edward Djerejian and USIP president Richard Solomon,
followed by a video interview with former President George H.W. Bush. Below, The Honorable James A. Baker, III, is pictured with members of the U.S. delegation to the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference (from left to right): Gemal Helal, The Honorable Daniel Kurtzer, Baker, Djerejian, The Honorable Dennis Ross and Aaron David Miller.
Photo courtesy of USIP
Baker, who served as 61st U.S. secretary of state, gave the
keynote address, in which he recalled the historic 1991 conference, the
first
official face-to-face peace negotiation involving Israel, Jordan, Syria,
Lebanon and the Palestinians.
Text of Baker's remarks is available for download, and video is above.
View the full conference agenda and other conference video, audio and content on the conference event page.
"Madrid revealed the critical importance of the
United States as a credible and effective broker. We were reassuring, but also
tough and fair," Baker told the conference. "We never made threats or promises that we were not prepared to
carry out, and there was a cost imposed on the parties for willfully saying 'No.'"
Addressing the current situation in the Middle East, Baker said the current U.S. leadership needs to do more.
"The peace process may not
be dead — but it’s clearly on life-support. It lacks both leadership and will
— particularly, I regret to say, on the part of the United States," he said. "And that is
not a political comment because the lack of leadership and will has occurred in
both Republican and Democratic administrations."
“Boko Haram: A Prognosis.”
